Originally when we first saw Kev, like his anger issues but also that he cared about Robert. I thought it was such an interesting story they could have told. Robert felt like he āowedā and did enjoy his company him but was terrified. And as Aaron said, Robert isnāt scared of anyone.
But the bit which failed was essentially giving Chris free rein to add bits in. The original plan then went skewed from a control to this half hearted joke. Itās an insult to Roberts character and just shows abuse is not serious if itās happening to Robert because apparently his lies were just as bad.
Yeah no that's my biggest issue with it too. I was frustrated initially because I wanted the straight ptsd story but I was willing to go with the Kev thing because I had misplaced faith in the show that they were going to do something with it that would still allow Robert to have a serious story and they just didn't do that.
But the initial dynamics were genuinely interesting to me. Not in a shipping way by any means, but I've always been totally fine watching a story of them with someone else play out in general, especially when you know it's going to lead back to robron anyway. But I thought the idea of Kev being this volatile guy with a short fuse that had been forged by the prison system but still had some genuine warmth and even the humor underneath was interesting. I thought the idea of Robert having to manage Kev's anger in prison and out of prison, of him feeling like he owed him for protecting him and was actually quite fond of him even if it wasn't anywhere close to what he felt for Aaron was interesting. The idea that Robert could be genuinely scared of him and his temper but also genuinely care for him was kind of fascinating to me. Also the idea that he might have been a little bit of a smaller, more inward version of himself to Kev's larger than life personality both because of that and because prison and Jez and what not made him want to shrink in on himself to protect himself and how that dynamic worked in prison in a way it didn't work in the outside world. And also how Kev's version of love wasn't really healthy and bordered on obsession but could have been partially caused by him being in prison so long and never having a real relationship or certainly not one with a man.
And then....they just didn't dig deeper into literally any of that and just wasted the prison flashback episode and turned Kev into a comedic character only and didn't pay off any of the above and undermined all of the talk of him being violent and a bomb waiting to go off and all of that. And they wasted the opportunity to give Robert a serious story and focused way too much on Kev and his antics.
And the thing is, if they'd explored all of the things they should have and let Robert have his serious story, let him have feelings about all the things he should have had feelings about, explored what it meant for him to be in prison and in that relationship, then I feel like Kev still could have been redeemable and when he returned, then his character could have gotten more focus because they already would have done the big Robert story. But that's not what happened at all and that sucks.
Also, I feel like Chris talks about his character having all these layers but I think the overuse of the comedic stuff really flattened him into nothing but a one note character and that was also bad.
Like, I am very anti Kev at this point for a lot of reasons, mostly due to an extreme lack of faith in the show writing him, but I was genuinely interested in the story at first when it still actually felt like a story and not like one big joke.
So...way to go Laura Shaw. Another slide for my PowerPoint on why she's my mortal enemy.
